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“Never have I ever turned into an enormous green rage monster!” Thor bellowed out, sounding entirely too proud of himself for having come up with his question.
“This feels a bit targeted, don’t you think?” Bruce let out a sigh, but reached for his drink nonetheless.
“You haven’t drunk much yet, friend! I did not want you to feel left out.”
“Ever so considerate, brother.” Loki remarked with a low chuckle to which Thor looked even prouder, any sarcasm flying by him as much as the beer was flying down his throat with every gulp he took from his comically large mug.
Tony had followed the exchange with an amused grin, pitying Steve who was squished in between the brothers and was on the receiving end of every loud toast coming out of Thor whenever he drank. Natasha, Clint and Bruce had taken to the other couch in the room, while Tony himself was lounging in an armchair, glad not to run the risk of having anyone else's drink poured on him in the inevitable downfall this evening was leading up to.
There had been a party at the tower, filled with all kinds of important people, that discussed even more important matters. At least according to them.
It had been an exhausting gathering, but once all of those people had left, it was only them, the Avengers, sitting in the living room and making the best out of the rest of the evening. It had actually been Clint who had suggested the somewhat silly drinking game, but everyone had happily gone along with it. God knows they could use a bit of alcohol to wash away the sour after taste of constant small talk with suits and high heels.
“Never have I ever eaten a live cockroach!”
Natasha let out a sound that hung somewhere between disgust and amusement. “Steve. That is not how this game works.”
“But I have never done that.”
“Yes, because hopefully no one has done that before.” Clint threw in.
“Was that not the point of this game?” Steve frowned, the look on his face reminding Tony an awful lot of a kicked puppy.
“For the millionth time, its-“
With the sound of Thor's glass being put back onto the table, Natasha froze. She slowly blinked, her eyes wandering across the room in horror before landing on Tony. He could only shrug in response, a wide grin on his face. Seems like Steve got the game after all.
Those were his favorite type of evenings, the ones where they all simply sat together and had fun, no supervillains knocking at the door or missions that needed to be discussed. They didn't just feel like colleagues or friends coming together, no, they felt like family.
“Never have I ever kissed another person that’s currently in the room.” Loki's voice was smooth and without any sign pointing to the amount of wine he had drunk, but Tony had kept track. He was currently on bottle three, but other than the first two buttons of his black dress shirt having been opened up, he looked as composed as ever.
“Ooooh, spicy!” Clint giggled out, portraying quite the opposite of Loki's demeanor. The alcohol had seemingly returned him to an only slightly less embarrassing version of a pubescent teenager.
Bruce and Natasha silently brought their drinks to their lips, while Steve didn't move.
“This is unfair!” Thor bellowed out, his understanding of an appropriate volume of speech now completely thrown out of the window. “I have kissed none of you, but I would still like to drink!”
“That’s not how the game works, buddy.” Tony said, amused at the pout on Thor's lips.
“You know, just give me a quick smooch and then you’ll be qualified to drink.” Clint winked at Thor, clearly having intended his words as nothing but a joke, but the man had utterly underestimated the gods' conviction to alcohol.
“That is a brilliant idea!” Thor shouted out and before Clint even had time to react, the god had grabbed him by the neck and pressed a kiss onto his lips. He drew back with a triumphant smile, raising his glass to drink.
There was absolute silence for a moment where everyone stared at Thor with wide eyes, before the room erupted into laughter. Clint blinked slowly, but after realizing what had just happened, he too, begrudgingly raised his own drink. Tony let out a big exhale, his laughter ebbing out as his eyes caught onto Loki.
The god tended to smile a lot, but truly laughed very little. And indeed, even now, while his lips were stretched into an amused grin, he was far from toppling over with laughter as the others were. Sprawled out on the couch with his head held high, there was not a crack to be found in his regal posture. His legs were spread wide apart, the dress pants he was wearing making them appear even longer than usual. His dark shirt with golden embroidery at its collar looked no less stunning. The formal look simply suited him.
Loki must have noticed him staring and his eyes slowly trailed over to meet Tonys. He raised an amused eyebrow, that glint shining in his eyes that Tony was all too familiar with by now. It was the one that looked at him as if there had just been a joke between them, that no one in the room but them would be able to understand. It was an oddly intimate look.
And then, as Tony kept staring, Loki leaned forward, took his glass of wine into his hands and drank.
There was still a drop of wine clinging to his lips when Thor gave Loki a clasp on the shoulder and barked out a laugh, but after that, everyone simply continued on with the game.
But Tony was frozen. Loki had kissed one of them before.
Who the fuck could that possibly be?
His eyes trailed over the others, over Clint, surely not , Bruce, equally unlikely. Thor? Perhaps Loki had thought a brotherly kiss would count…
Tony shook his head. No, Loki knew that didn’t count, even Thor had taken up on that. Steve? The man hadn’t drunk, so it wasn’t possible. Tony's eyes trailed over to the last person in the room.
Natasha. He frowned. She had been in a relationship with Bruce for two years, but now that Tony thought about it, there had been a time of Loki joining the Avengers and her not dating anyone overlapping. But the longer he thought about it, the more wrong it seemed. When Loki had first joined them, she had been the most skeptical out of everyone regarding his intentions, taking the longest to warm up the god. There was no point in time where he could have ever believed such a thing to take place.
It presented Tony with one very specific problem: There was simply no one else left.
But Loki had drunk.
“Tony? Haven’t you ridden a roller-coaster before?”
Tony blinked, Steve's voice rang uncomfortably loud in his ears.
“Oh, yea.” He cleared his throat, grabbing his drink while trying not to show just how lost in his thoughts he had been.
The evening continued, laughter was shared and drinks were emptied, but Tony wasn't able to enjoy it as the others were. He was stuck in that moment, his mind reeling over who Loki could have possibly kissed before. The mere thought sent an aching hurt through his chest.
He was utterly, bitterly jealous.
By now, most of them were too drunk to continue the game, half of them passed out, while the rest simply talked. Thor had somehow rolled off the couch and onto the floor, his snores so loud that Tony was surprised no glasses had been shattered yet. Steve was still sitting next to Loki, fighting a constant battle against his closing eyelids. Eventually he slumped into the couch, apparently even a super soldier could not win against Tonys best whisky. A snore escaped him, gentle compared to the noises that were leaving Thor. And then his head slumped further to the side, inch by inch until it no longer rested on the couch, but Loki's shoulder instead. Loki's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before he looked over to Tony, grin stretching across his face and then, he threw him a wink.
Tony stood up quickly. The world swayed dangerously under his drunken legs, but he stabilized quickly enough.
“I gotta go to the bathroom.”
“Knock yourself out.” Clint slurred from somewhere under several pillows, but Tony barely heard him as he was already storming out the door.
The cool water felt heavenly on his burning skin, even if it could not wash away the jealousy clinging to him. He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. His white dress shirt was crinkled and loose, his hair tousled in a way that was a far cry from the slicked back look he had been sporting at the start of the night. Tony ran a hand through it in an attempt to tame it, but no matter what he did, there was a wet dog staring back at him. His fingers froze when he spotted Loki in the reflection of the mirror, leaning against the doorframe and looking at Tony with crossed arms.
“What is it?” Tony asked, trying not to let the annoyance in his voice shine through and utterly failing at it.
“I merely came here to watch what you were doing after you stormed off so dramatically.” Loki looked more than amused and Tony hated it.
He had been having this crush on Loki for a little while now, and while at first Tony had thought it was nothing more than a purely physical attraction, it seemed impossible to get rid of his feelings for the god by now. Because Loki was not only physically attractive, no, he had to be one of the smartest people Tony had ever met. He was cunning, intelligent and curious. He was just so utterly his type, it hurt.
Tony had been attracted to enough other people before, but never had it been like this. He was god damn Tony Stark, if he wanted someone, there was no reason for him to hesitate and play coy as he currently was. Half the world dreamed of sleeping with him and the other half was jealous of him for getting the former.
But this was different.
Because Tony was actually somewhat worried about getting rejected. Not that his ego couldn’t handle it, that would be just fine, but he was afraid his heart couldn't. It was a scary thought, that Tony would have his question answered with a simple No , that hope within him shattered forever by a two letter word.
And his worry wasn’t without merit either. Tony had tested the waters before, had thrown some flirty remarks the gods way, and while Loki had always responded with the same energy, he had never been the one to initiate such contact. He smiled at Tony, yes, but it was the same smile that he sent to everyone.
Still, sometimes he would catch Loki looking at him, with that glint in his eyes that seemed to sparkle just a tad too bright for it to be nothing. It always managed to ignite the spark of hope within him, but judging by what he had seen earlier, perhaps he had been right to assume that this was just a one sided affair.
“Who is it?” Tony blurted out. Maybe it was the alcohol making him blunt or just the burning desire to finally know, but he couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Hm?” Loki leaned his head to the side in question.
“Who did you kiss?”
“Oh…” A wide grin stretched over Loki’s face. “Who do you think?”
Tony sucked in a shuddering breath. He wasn’t in the mood to play this game, all he wanted was an answer, but things were rarely that easy with Loki.
“Natasha?”
“Nope.”
Tony frowned. “….then Clint?”
Loki scoffed. “Please, Tony. Do you really think I would be interested in that bumbling buffoon?”
Despite everything, a small laugh escaped Tony. “Fair point. It for certain wasn’t Bruce.” Loki shook his head. “But then who…?”
Tony once again reached the same conclusion as he had before, there was frankly no one left. Which could only mean…
“You bastard.” Tony gave Loki a punch to his chest, but his entire body slumped with relief at the realization of what had happened. “You know it's universally agreed upon that lying during drinking games is very much not cool, right?”
“I apologize.” Loki did not sound sorry in the slightest. “It seems that Midgardian custom has gone over my head.”
"Yeah, right.” Only a fool would believe that Loki had not done that intentionally. “But why did you lie?”
Tony looked at Loki and there was that glint shining in his eyes again, the one that always managed to send a shiver running down Tony's spine.
“I enjoy it.”
Tony raised an eyebrow. “Just lying in general?”
“No.” A knowing smirk spread across Loki’s face. “I enjoy seeing your jealousy.”
“Oh.” Tony sucked in a shuddering breath, unable to hold eye contact any longer. Loki had been away of Tonys crush the entire time, had known exactly what kind of game he had been playing. But to Tony it was so much more than just a game, to him it was real. He couldn't keep his voice from breaking when he spoke again. “Why would you do that?”
Loki hummed, stepping closer towards Tony. He had expected a mocking smirk on the others face, but what he found instead, was a burning heat that captivated him enough to barely notice the hand that was coming to trail along his cheek.
“It's the way you react when I barely brush your hand, the way you don’t look away, even when I catch you staring.” Loki's touch across his skin left sparks of electricity in its wake, his voice low and husky. “The way your eyes narrow in jealousy when you merely see me smiling at someone else.” A deep fascination took over his expression, his eyes trailing over Tony's face. “It's addicting.”
Tony's heart was racing in his chest. He felt like he needed at least five more drinks to survive this emotional roller-coaster Loki had put him on. “This is cruel, you know. Even for you.”
“Oh, I apologize.” To Tony's surprise, Loki did actually sound a bit sorry. Or maybe it was just his drunken brain imagining it. What he certainly wasn’t imagining though, was the way Loki was crowding him against the wall, forcing Tony to look back at him with a hand on his chin. “Is there perhaps a way I could make up for it?”
“I can think of one.” Tony breathed out, a shiver of excitement rushing through his body. Loki had been the one to step forward, had been the one to initiate the contact, Tony had not missed that. Neither had he missed the way Loki’s eyes briefly fluttered down to his lips, before catching his gaze again, the heat of their intensity undeniable.
“Which way would that be?” Loki all but murmured, a teasing tone hanging in his voice.
“Oh, shut up already.”
Tony surged forward to kiss Loki, because he simply had more than enough of this game they were playing, he was ready to shoot his shot. If Loki didn’t want it? Fine. He could draw back from the kiss. Perhaps Tony had simply been too drunk after all and misinterpreted his advances, but he would finally have his answer. It would hurt, but perhaps it would be the healing kind of hurt, the one that would allow him to move on from this maddening crush.
In the end, Tony never found out, because as his lips met Loki’s, the god all but melted against him, kissing him back with every inch of his life. Oh, how many times Tony had allowed himself to dream of this moment, to imagine the way Loki’s touch would feel on his skin. And now that it was all in front of him, it seemed almost unreal. Loki's hands were clutching his face, his body pressed against him tight, as if every inch between them was an insult to him personally.
“But why didn’t you drink earlier then, Tony?”
They drew back from the kiss to find Clint standing in the doorframe, swaying dangerously from side to side. His slurred words were the last warning before the man bolted past them to empty the contents of his stomach into the toilet.
Loki frowned in distaste at the noises that filled the room, but his eyes were still hungry as they looked back at Tony.
“Perhaps we should find a bit of a more private spot to spend the rest of the night.”
Tony smirked. His body was buzzing, but it certainly wasn't just from the alcohol. “I can think of one.”